One Man Killed More Than Any Single Person In Human History
Thomas Midgely, Jr.: “one-man environmental disaster”
My purpose in writing this is share an appalling history with you, my readers. That history is best imparted through the video at the end of my short essay on Thomas Midgely, Jr.
Thomas Midgely, Jr, was one of the lead chemical engineers at General Motors on the development of tetraethyllead (TEL) — then known as “ tetraethyl lead program” — inventing leaded gas. While leaded gas was in wide use, his product poisoned generations of humanity and has caused the premature deaths of millions upon millions — up to 1.2 million PER YEAR — making Midgely the single most proflific mass killer in all of human history. The ramifications of his chemical invention continues to impact our environment and ourselves.
Of course, his invention didn’t reach every corner of the world unassisted. Expediency and greed assured the world would pay an incalulable price to enrich Midgely’s corporate partners. They knew the dangers of the product but dismissed them, actively worked to discredit and/or unseat anyone who challenged their unimaginably profitable poison. The world had known the detriments of lead for centuries.
Lead poisoning causes immense societal harm: brain damage, chronic illness, lowered IQ, elevated mortality. Lead exposure in childhood has been linked with violent crime rates decades later. Extremely high lead levels can lead to seizures, coma, and death. Lower levels tend to cause less detectable harm, but there’s no safe level of lead exposure: Scientists’ current best guess is that any lead exposure at all causes harm. [Vox, 03 September 2021]
Midgely and his corporate partners knew first hand that their product could be deadly. The man himself suffered lead poisoning. He was “warned as early as 1922, 1923, and 1924 by Erich Krause, George Calingaert, M. G. Whitman, Hugh Cumming about the effects.” [Wikipedia] Yet, they actively refuted the evidence of Midgely’s and their own employees’s experiences. Well after Midgely had recovered from his own initial poisoning, the man even stood on a stage in corporate presser and personally inhaled TEL for several moments to prove the lie that the product was harmless. The propaganda of lies worked for decades.
Please watch the Veritasium video below for the full history and context reported better than I could hope to impart:
